dvanced Micro Devices was formally incorporated on May 1, 1969, by Jerry Sanders, along with seven of his colleagues from Fairchild Semiconductor.[7][8] Sanders, an electrical engineer who was the director of marketing at Fairchild, had like many Fairchild executives grown frustrated with the increasing lack of support, opportunity, and flexibility within that company, and decided to leave to start his own semiconductor company.[9] The previous year Robert Noyce, who had invented the first practical integrated circuit or microchip in 1959 at Fairchild,[10] had left Fairchild together with Gordon Moore and founded the semiconductor company Intel in July 1968.[11]
In September 1969, AMD moved from its temporary location in Santa Clara to Sunnyvale, California.[12] To immediately secure a customer base, AMD initially became a second source supplier of microchips designed by Fairchild and National Semiconductor.[13][14] AMD first focused on producing logic chips.[15] The company guaranteed quality control to United States Military Standard, an advantage in the early computer industry since unreliability in microchips was a distinct problem that customers – including computer manufacturers, the telecommunications industry, and instrument manufacturers – wanted to avoid.[13][16][17][18]
In November 1969, the company manufactured its first product, the Am9300, a 4-bit MSI shift register, which began selling in 1970.[18][19] Also in 1970, AMD produced its first proprietary product, the Am2501 logic counter, which was highly successful.[20][21] Its best-selling product in 1971 was the Am2505, the fastest multiplier available.[20][22]
In 1971, AMD entered the RAM chip market, beginning with the Am3101, a 64-bit bipolar RAM.[22][23] That year AMD also greatly increased the sales volume of its linear integrated circuits, and by year end the company's total annual sales reached $4.6 million.[20][24]
AMD went public in September 1972.[13][25][26] The company was a second source for Intel MOS/LSI circuits by 1973, with products such as Am14/1506 and Am14/1507, dual 100-bit dynamic shift registers.[27][28] By 1975, AMD was producing 212 products – of which 49 were proprietary, including the Am9102 (a static N-channel 1024-bit RAM)[29] and three low-power Schottky MSI circuits: Am25LS07, Am25LS08, and Am25LS09.[30]
Intel had created the first microprocessor, its 4-bit 4004, in 1971.[31][32] By 1975, AMD entered the microprocessor market with the Am9080, a reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080,[33][34][35] and the Am2900 bit-slice microprocessor family.[34] When Intel began installing microcode in its microprocessors in 1976, it entered into a cross-licensing agreement with AMD, granting AMD a copyright license to the microcode in its microprocessors and peripherals, effective October 1976.[30][36][37][38][39]
In 1977, AMD entered into a joint venture with Siemens, a German engineering conglomerate wishing to enhance its technology expertise and enter the U.S. market.[40] Siemens purchased 20% of AMD's stock, giving AMD an infusion of cash to increase its product lines.[40][41][42] That year the two companies also jointly established Advanced Micro Computers, located in Silicon Valley and in Germany, giving AMD an opportunity to enter the microcomputer development and manufacturing field,[40][43][44][45] in particular based on AMD's second-source Zilog Z8000 microprocessors.[46][47] When the two companies' vision for Advanced Micro Computers diverged, AMD bought out Siemens' stake in the U.S. division in 1979.[48][49] AMD closed its Advanced Micro Computers subsidiary in late 1981, after switching focus to manufacturing second-source Intel x86 microprocessors.[46][50][51]
Total sales in fiscal year 1978 topped $100 million,[43] and in 1979, AMD debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.[21] In 1979, production also began in AMD's new semiconductor fab in Austin;[21] the company already had overseas assembly facilities in Penang and Manila,[52] and it began construction on a semiconductor fab in San Antonio in 1981.[53] In 1980, AMD began supplying semiconductor products for telecommunications, an industry undergoing rapid expansion and innovation.[54]
Technology exchange agreement with Intel[edit]
